mehdhalaouate | the Internet Bird Collection

mehdhalaouate

Mehd has been fascinated with birds from a very early age when he lived with his family in Morocco. In Sweden, together with his ex-wife, he began keeping and breeding many parrot species such as Yellow-crested Cockatoos, Red-bellied Parrots, Black-headed Caiques, four fig-parrot species as well as softbills.

To learn more about parrots in their habitat they decided to travel to where fig-parrots are found in Papua (formally known as Irian Jaya) in Indonesia. Seeing Palm cockatoos, Pesquet’s parrots and many Bird of Paradise species were among the highlights of the trip. This interest in the birds of the region developed into intensive travelling around Indonesia in search of endemic species and creating a network of contacts. Birding Indonesia was born as a result and since 2003 many friends and guests have taken part, enjoying watching the many species thrive in their wild and remote habitat.

Since his first trip he has returned to Papua more than 50 times and Mehd now lives in Bali where he works with Bali Starling conservation. He is also World Parrot Trust’s Indonesia Programme Manager which involves doing fieldwork and conservation work for the parrot species all over Indonesia.